Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. False religion, false teaching always exalts the individual. Oh, here's an individual who's got these wonderful insights. He had this vision from God. God told him this.
What a wonderful person. Notice how. The glory goes to the individual. But with the cross. We're all on the same level.
Sinners saved. Bye Grace, are you saved? Welcome to The Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. Throughout scripture, there are frequent warnings about false teaching. because where there is truth, there is always error.
and too often we are so easily deceived. But today, on the verdict, we'll realize that our own attitudes can help or hinder our spiritual understanding.
Now, continuing in Matthew, here's Pastor John Monroe with today's lesson. Isn't truth being blurred today? People speak of my truth or your truth. We hear of fake news, disinformation, misinformation, spin, and all of that. But isn't there truth and error?
Aren't there things that are right and things that are wrong? Today as we continue our study in the Gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus dealing with false teaching. Our enemy, the devil, is a liar and the father of lies.
So as followers of Jesus, we believe in truth. And we also believe that there is false teaching. That which is contrary to who God is and what He has revealed in His Word. The Lord is again in confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes. He's going to reveal that their hypocrisy prevents them from seeing the truth.
It is possible. to have eyes and not to see. It is possible, spiritually speaking, to have ears and not to hear. Another study of Matthew. I thought of this during the week.
that we have been listening to the words of Jesus. We have been seeing Jesus in action. And I ask myself, as I ask you now, Are we understanding? Has it made any difference in our lives? Are our attitudes being changed?
Is our faith being strengthened? Is our hearts being softened? Are we basing our lives on the truths of the Word of God that we're learning? What is your. Response.
How important it is That our lives conform to the word of God. How easy it is for our lives to conform to to our culture, to our contemporaries. Rather Than our Very lives Being conformed to the word of God. And throughout scripture, as we're going to learn, In this passage, throughout scripture, there are many warnings against false teachers. The Apostle Paul speaks of deceitful spirits and teaching of demons in 1 Timothy 4, verse 1.
Jesus described the enemy as a liar. And the father of lies. Think of any lies. We hear. Almost every day.
in our culture. In our media. Yes, from our own hearts. We are, we must admit, difficult although it is, that we are rather easily misled, easily deceived. Where there is truth, there is always error.
And so we're praying, I trust as we read the word of God, that our eyes will be opened, that their ears will be opened. that our hearts will not be hardened. And that we will respond to the word of God with humble obedience. Humility is key. Obedience is key.
And then our passage, as we're going to read now, The Lord Jesus gives a very stern warning. Against false. Teaching. Matthew chapter 16 then. And I'm going to read the first.
Twelve verses. Matthew 16. Verse one The Pharisees and Sadducees came And to test him. They asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them.
When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather. For the sky is red. And in the morning it will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky But you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.
But no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
So he left them. and departed. When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, We brought no bread.
But Jesus, aware of this, said, O you of little faith, Why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? do you not yet perceive Do you not yet remember the five loaves for the five thousand and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it? that you fail to understand that they did not speak about bread.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood. that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread. But of the teaching. of the Pharisees.
and Sadducees.
Now that's an intriguing portion of scripture Isn't it? I want us to learn, first of all, from this passage, that sinful and stubborn attitudes prevent spiritual understanding. That it's all too possible to hear the truth, the accurate truth, to hear the word of God. But because of our attitudes, Because of sin in our life, we fail to understand. We hear at one level.
But we totally miss this spiritual Truth. Here in this passage, and we've seen it before, the hypocrisy of the religious establishment, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, blind them as to the true identity of Jesus. Here they are again in conflict. Here they are again confronting Jesus. And we saw in chapter 12, verse 14, that the Pharisees These evil men had been conspiring to put Jesus to death, conspiring to destroy him.
Faced with the very miracles of Jesus. Faced with his brilliant, gracious teaching. Their hearts are hardened. The irrefutable evidence is right before them. But they don't see it.
The truth is presented to them, but they don't hear it. In fact, The greater the evidence, The more outstanding the miracles. And the more brilliant the teaching, the harder and harder their hearts become until eventually. They're going to crucify him. Spiritually Blind.
spiritually. Def. They are, as Jesus taught in chapter 12, they are in danger of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The unforgivable. Sen.
And so Jesus gives this very stern warning to the disciples. Verse six. Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Again The end of verse 11, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Verse 12, they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
He's warning them against false teaching. Leaven, yeast, starts small, is the point, and it quickly spreads. Be exposed to a little false teaching, it quickly spreads. The leaven of the Pharisees is their hypocritical attitude and their unbelief. Luke.
In Luke chapter 12. Verse 1 says, In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to the disciples, here it is. First. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. He spells it out.
What is this? This evil that so quickly spreads, it is hypocrisy, it's unbelief. They Like many religious people. Can I say that we are tempted to be like this? They honor the Lord with their lips.
But their heart It's far from it. That's it, that's the Pharisees. You see, the Pharisees added. their legalistic traditions to the Word of God. The Pharisees add to the Word of God with their traditions, with their legalistic regulations.
The Sadducees, on the other hand, reject part of the word of God. They don't believe in the supernatural. In particular, they don't believe in the resurrection. That's why we call them side you sees. Yeah.
They are sad, you see. Bad joke, but you'll help to remember. You'll never forget that one. They reject the resurrection. A group adds to the Word of God, a group takes away from the Word of God.
By the way, Always. Always beware. of those who add to scripture. of those who go to beyond scripture. with their special visions and dreams.
And always beware of those, of course, who selectively Hold to scripture. They take this part, but they reject That part. that's leaven and it quickly spreads. A wrong view of Scripture, adding to Scripture or taking away the parts of Scripture that we don't like, that we don't think are very cool, that don't conform to our unbelieving culture, we reject that. False teaching quickly.
Spreads, doesn't it? I was thinking.
So do we have an example of of this today? of false teaching quickly spread here. I thought, you know, I mentioned this before. That there are the arise of these prophets and apostles, they call themselves. And some of you want me to listen to them.
I'm not going to listen to them. We have one false prophet claiming That God told him not to take the vaccine.
Now, whether he takes the vaccine or not, who cares? But he's actually claiming Think of it. Think of the blaspheme area. That God told him and he says I'm a prophet And the sad thing is that so many people, yes, so many Christians lack the discernment because some person says something like that and puts it on YouTube and goes so far to say: if you take the vaccine, in fact, this is the mark of the beast, this is the mark of the Antichrist, that in the vaccine there is the mark of the beast. And people think, oh, that could be true.
Listen, it's nonsense. Absolutely. Nonsense. That's a false prophet. Clearly hasn't read Revelation 13, which says the mark of the beast is going to be in the right hand, the tattoo, and the right hand are on the forehead.
When I got my vaccine, I wasn't tattooed.
Furthermore, the Antichrist is going to come during the tribulation, not before it. I'm just giving a rather bizarre example. of what is out there about People who claim to be prophets, who claim to be apostles, and thousands of people listen to that nonsense on YouTube rather than reading the word of God and say, oh, I wonder if it's true. It's not true. It is false teaching.
Am I talking strongly enough this morning? Do you know what the Pharisees want? Like many people, they want a sign from heaven. Did you notice that? They ignore the miracles.
But they want something spectacular, perhaps like Elijah who brought down the fire from heaven. Show us a sign from heaven, they say. They're there to test Jesus. They're there to discredit Jesus. They're there to trap Jesus.
This is not. A good question asked in good faith. Jesus says, How is it you can interpret The weather, but you can't interpret the signs of the time. I was brought up with the saying. Red sky at night.
Shepherd's delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning. Pharisees were brought up with something else. They could interpret the weather, very good to interpret the weather. But you can't interpret the signs of the times.
You're asking me, Jesus is saying, for a sign from heaven. And he is the sign. Right in front of them is the Messiah, the Son of God. And they cannot see, they cannot understand that right in front of their eyes. It's the Christ as we're going to See you next week.
The Christ, the Son of the living. God. You've got the scriptures, Jesus is saying. You've got the sign of Jonah. You've got all the evidence you need.
Your problem is not that there are not signs, your problem is that your hearts. are hardened. That you're rejecting the very evidence in front of you. Can I say to you, don't add to. or reject the word of God.
I ask you. I ask you as I ask myself. When faced with God's truth, how are you responding? Do you got a hard heart? You become quite argumentative sometimes about spiritual things.
But you ignore the evidence around you. I had the privilege this morning of watching the sunrise. Absolutely incredible. Beautiful, beautiful sunrise. The beauty of creation.
The very voice of your conscience, the power. Of the Word of God? Are you really committed to pursuing the truth? Or are you like the Pharisees and the Sadducees? You're argumentative, you're hostile, you're hardened, you're testing God, and you're covering up the own sit your sin in your own life.
For all of us, stubborn. and sinful attitudes. Keep us. from humbly trusting. Jesus.
Isn't that true in your own life? You know that. I know that. That attitude will keep you from growing In Christ. Lord Jesus is going to tell us we're to become like little children, not naive.
No, but trusting. And the leaven of unbelief. The leaven of hypocrisy, of playing a part, so easily creeps into our lives, doesn't it? And so Jesus is saying, watch. And beware.
And I'm saying it to you today. Watch and beware. Yes, there is false teaching. A couple of months ago, after a message, a dear lady, I'm sure she's well-meaning. She may not have come back, but she said to me, I can believe that you are saying that some doctrine is wrong.
She's got the view, I guess, that all doctrine is right. She said, you're being judgmental. I said, no. I'm declaring the truth of God. And where there is truth, there is error.
And here the Lord Jesus Christ, the most loving and caring of people, is saying to his followers, Watch and beware. Don't fall for the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And did you notice at the end of verse 4 that he left them and departed? There's a time when dialogue comes to an end. There's a time as we're talking to people that there's a time just to stop and to say, okay, we're going to leave it there.
And he lord Jesus turns. from them. and speaks to the to the disciples. The disciples are like us. Do you identify with them?
The disciples see, but they don't fully see. The disciples hear, but they don't fully hear. The disciples understand, but they don't fully understand. And even as Jesus said in these verses, the feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000, and you were there, I used you in the distribution of the fish and the loaves, you still haven't yet got it. You see the miracles.
You hear my teaching. but they have not yet fully grasped who Jesus is. We're going to see that next week. Also, they have all they need to do God's will. But what are they worrying about, verse seven?
We brought no bread. Yeah. You've got the supreme bread maker right with you. And you're worrying. About no bread?
Were you not there? When we fed the five persons. We're not there when we Fed the 4,000. I mean, how many baskets were there? You worrying about something?
Worrying about your bread. And the supreme breadmaker is there. That's the disciples that's a certain And sometimes our eyes are closed. to what the Lord Jesus is doing in our lives. The disciples were there, but they hadn't yet grasped the wonder of who in their midst is doing the miracles.
And that's like us sometimes, isn't it? God is at work in our very lives. God is at work in the lives of other people around us, and sometimes we can hardly see it. Again, I ask you, are your ears open? Is there a humility?
Is your ears open to hear Jesus? You're trusting in Jesus to accomplish His purposes through you. Could it be that Jesus is saying to us this morning at church, verse 8, O you of little faith? Do you not perceive? Do you not remember?
Do you not remember what God did to you last year? Do you not remember how God acted in your life? Did you not hear that testimony of that individual? How is it that you failed to understand, verse 11, that I didn't speak about bread? Sinful and stubborn attitudes prevent spiritual understanding.
But you you say, what's the real point? What do we really have to understand? Coming to the cross of Christ is essential for spiritual understanding. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples, and we'll think of this in detail next week, Lord willing.
The disciples now are going to begin to understand who Jesus is. Here they are at Caesarea Philippi in verse 13. And The disciples are going to begin to realize that Jesus is more than a prophet. They've seen the miracles, they've heard the teaching. And Jesus is now calling for a personal response from them.
Who do you say that I am? And Peter is going to respond with divine revelation, you are the Christ. The sun of the living God verse 16. But although They recognize that he's the Christ, he's the Messiah. Although they recognize that he's the Son of the living God, they still do not understand what kind of Messiah, what kind of Christ he is.
And in particular, they don't understand that he comes as the suffering Messiah. Read with me from verse 21. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. But Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you.
But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. For you're a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God. But on the things. of man.
They understand that Jesus is the Christ. But they don't understand what kind of Christ he is They think of the Messiah in political and social and economic liberation. They think of the Messiah coming who's going to deliver them from Rome. That's why he said, incidentally, verse 20, Jesus strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. He didn't come Primarily to heal.
He didn't come primarily to release people from prison. He comes. as the saviour. He comes as Matthew told us. In chapter 1, verse 21, he comes.
as Jesus. Who's going to die? for the sins of his people. He comes. as the suffering Messiah.
This is the verdict featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever. but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World.
Through this special resource John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at the verdict. org. While you're there, consider making an investment in this Bible teaching ministry. Whether it's $5, $50, or more, your gift today helps cover the cost of sharing these gospel messages to listeners around the world.
And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Verdict Podcast, featuring John's weekly podcast exclusive called Avizandam. It's available wherever you get your podcasts, or simply go to our website. Again, that's theverdict.org. The verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte. We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road.
If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ, we invite you to join us for our Sunday services. For more details about Calvary and our service times, visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Do you ever feel that you have a hard heart? Are you critical of the Word of God? You're always finding fault. Or are you always seeking the spectacular?
Pray that you'll have a soft and humble heart as you listen to the word of God. As we learned, unbelief and hypocrisy can so easily creep into our lives.
So be on guard. Be careful. Pray that your eyes are open to see what God is doing. and that your ears are open to hear the living word of God. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict.
I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
